Month: November 2016

by William Skink

It’s dark outside right now because the sun isn’t shining on this part of our planet. Tomorrow, as the earth spins, the sun will return, and most of you reading this will be doing so in a new, cold, scary reality where Donald Trump has just been elected president of America.

I am not happy about this, or even remotely able to wrap my head around what this will mean. The meltdowns and visceral reactions on Twitter have been something to see. One person I follow stated simply FUCKING WHITE PEOPLE.

I know that leading up to tonight I’ve had borderline panic attacks from the tremendous anticipation building and building that this would be the outcome of our “election” and Donald Trump would win.

That reality appears to be happening, and there are lots of people beginning their journey on the initial stages of grief over these “shocking” results.

If that journey includes scapegoating Trump supporters for the economic crisis that was going to happen regardless of who was elected, then you are playing into the oligarchs hands by going to war against the wrong people.

Don’t go to war against the wrong people, America. Even though that’s what we’ve been doing for decades.

by William Skink

I finished the 3rd installment of my docu-series last night. This one is about burnout, trauma and the art therapy methods I’ve utilized to get through it. One of the highlights is an interview I did with a homeless man and in that short interview he gives his take on the housing problem in Missoula, which I find more compelling than the endless studies being done, like this one just announced by Missoula’s Organization of Realtors. From the link:

We believe a key piece of addressing the affordability issue is to determine why the supply of homes is not keeping up with demand. While Missoula’s location in a mountain valley provides constraints, the scarcity of land is only one of many challenges. We need to identify all of the significant barriers to developing housing affordable for working people, and we need to find solutions that the community can work together to implement.

The Missoula Organization of REALTORS® has proposed a study to do just that. We have identified an experienced professional consultant, and are forming partnerships with both private and public sector organizations as the planning phase begins. We are committed to a framework that gives partners meaningful opportunities for participation throughout the planning and execution of the study. This is critical because the housing affordability issue is a community problem, and addressing it will require the community to work together towards solutions.

Head. Wall. Bang, bang, bang…

by William Skink

It’s been difficult to keep the sense of impending doom from consuming me. I’m currently working on my 3rd docu-video, and this one is about burnout, which seems more than appropriate considering most people are absolutely burned out on the political charade that will culminate tomorrow.

I haven’t worked on my fictional story in awhile because I’ve gotten stuck and wanted to wait until after the election to get back to the story. I’m glad I did take a break because I think I may try to incorporate the craziest conspiracy theory I’ve come across yet related to the election.

The conspiratorial yarn stems from an actual bizarre historical fact that itself has me reeling with possibility.  Apparently some of the information the FBI has been declassifying recently included a fascinating connection between Nikola Tesla and John Trump, Donald Trump’s Uncle:

As unpredictable as the current U.S. Presidential elections have been, a striking historical sidenote lies in their connection to the famous Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla.

A few days after Tesla died on January 8th, 1943, his possessions were seized by officials from the amazingly-named government Office of Alien Property. About 3 weeks after that, all of Tesla’s things and documents were given a thorough examination by a group of FBI agents that included none other than John G. Trump, the uncle of the current Republican candidate for U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

Trump’s uncle was, by all accounts, a very accomplished and intelligent man, an M.I.T. Professor of Engineering, who helped design X-ray machines for cancer patients and did radar research work for the army during World War 2.

For more on Trump’s Uncle, here is a piece from the New Yorker. Here is an excerpt about the Tesla connection:

Trump was involved in radar research for the Allies in the Second World War, and in 1943 the F.B.I. had enough faith in his technical ability and his discretion to call him in when Nikola Tesla died in his room at the New Yorker Hotel, in Manhattan, raising the question of whether enemy agents might have had a chance to learn some of his secrets before the body was found. (One fear was that Tesla was working on a “death ray.”) As Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth recount in “Tesla, Master of Lightning,” Professor Trump examined Tesla’s papers and equipment, and, in a written report, told the F.B.I. not to worry: Tesla’s “thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character,” but “did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.”

So this actually happened, according to reputable sources. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of speculation, this comment thread from Rigorous Intuition explores the wacky theory that Uncle Trump was lying about what he discovered Tesla was working on–a time machine–and that Donald Trump has been time-traveling to try and change the human race from turning the planet into a nuclear wasteland.

Bolstering this strange fiction intruding on our strange reality is the movie Back to the Future II, where the alternative timeline created by irresponsible time-traveling produced a dystopia where an eerily Trumpesque Biff rules due to the information he obtained from the sports almanac. Oh yeah, and the Chicago Cubs won the world series in the movie, just one year off from the “real” Cubs winning the World Series this year.

Anyways, today is the last day before the election. Will Al-Qaeda attack domestic targets? Will armed militias invade urban ghettoes? Will the stock market collapse and martial law be imposed?

Who knows, but I think it’s safe to say we are in for one hell of a bumpy ride.

by William Skink

Most people working social service jobs know this time of year interest grows in what they do. As the leaves finish falling, and with Thanksgiving fast approaching, local media go through the motions of reporting on the persistent need that will still be there once the cameras stop rolling.

This year being an election year, politicians get to feign seasonal/electoral concern over things like youth homelessness, and ID provided the platform for this guest post from Zachary DeWolf , Director of Communications & Education at the Pride Foundation.  There was a summit, you see, about taking a stand for the 3,000 students experiencing homelessness in Montana.  From the link:

The summit’s focus was to support unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness and to build awareness of the factors leading to and the disproportionate impact of homelessness, with a special focus on youth of color, Native American youth, and LGBTQ youth.

Earlier this year, the Montana OPI reported that in 2010-2011, the state’s school districts identified a total of 1,487 students experiencing homelessness in their classrooms. That number skyrocketed to 3,000 students experiencing homelessness in the 2015-2016.

This shocking report, as well as the need to explore and coordinate the work that is already being done throughout the state—was the impetus for this week’s summit.

Steve Bullock and Denise Juneau were special guests at this summit, and good for them for being present, considering it’s been under their leadership this situation has worsened.

In Bullock and Juneau’s defense, I do think the increased numbers are, in part, a reflection of better efforts to identify and report. The incentive, though, is partly driven by the need to obtain more funding, which is both understandable and unfortunate.

Where I decided to open my big, fat mouth was in the comments, starting with this:

I remember when an alleged “progressive” and LGBT advocate, Caitlin Copple, led the effort in Missoula to criminalize sitting on downtown sidewalks, which almost got us sued by the ACLU. luckily Adam Hertz, from that despicable other side of the political spectrum, led the effort to reconsider this terrible maneuver and save Missoula from costly litigation.

it’s great they had a summit, though. next they should fund a study, then form a committee, then forget about this problem and move on to saving more refugees.

What’s boiling over here, for me, is the time and resources wasted a few years ago to corral the transient problem downtown. In another comment, I explained how there are two categories: stuff that gets done, and stuff that gets talked about:

examples of stuff getting done: downtown businesses want another ordinance because the last few didn’t work–it’s introduced in October and pushed through by December; do-gooders want to save refugees, and from idea to families arriving in less than a year it happens, with that woman from New York in the newspaper whining about her scramble to find them housing because no income, no credit, no rental history and no co-signing usually destroys your chance of renting in Missoula.

examples of stuff getting talked about: affordable housing, jail over-crowding, an alternative to the ER and jail for chronic homeless people, the crisis with child protective services. year after year after year, talk, talk, talk.

From the category of talk, there has been more surrounding the jail diversion plan. This article is from Missoula Current. From the link:

“It’s a broad approach, and there’s a lot of different things involved in here,” said Missoula County Undersheriff Jason Johnson. “The intention is to not build a bigger jail, but to identify issues of people getting stuck in the system and help with things like mental health and addiction. That’s really a community approach, and it’s not something the detention center can take on on its own.”

Emily Bentley, one of the effort’s primary sponsors, said revisions to the latest version of the master plan address a number of questions raised earlier this year by law enforcement officials and the legal system.

As written, the plan directs the city and county to work more closely with area health-care providers, and it urges local law enforcement officials to provide crisis intervention training to patrol officers and ensure each shift has one trained officer on duty.

Jason Johnson states the intention of the plan is to identify issues that contribute to people getting “stuck” in jail, like mental health and addiction. The problem is these issues have been identified FOR YEARS. We know the fucking problems at this point, there’s no goddamn mystery around what’s fueling overcrowding. We just don’t have the programs and infrastructure to provide a legitimate alternative to jail. Why?

Here’s more from the link:

It also identifies gaps in local services, including the city’s lack of a social detox facility and a homeless shelter for those under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which comprise roughly 35 percent of the total nonviolent inmate population, according to the report.

“This is the first plan, if adopted, that will call for permanent supportive housing,” said Bentley. “It calls for electronic monitoring, which we currently don’t have. We have it a little bit, but not in a systematic way. This clarifies that.”

Jesus Christ, Emily Bentley, do you really think this is the first plan calling for permanent supportive housing? Have you not read that other little 10 year plan to end homelessness put out 4 years ago?

So what’s the hitch? Money, mostly:

The 121-page report dives deep into local and national statistics, best practices and alternatives to incarceration, including a greater emphasis on intervention. It makes no mention of costs associated with implementing new diversion efforts, though Tina Reinicke, the court administrator for Missoula Municipal Court, placed the price tag at roughly $1 million.

“There will be budgetary implications,” Reinicke said. “When we costed it out just before April, it was just under $1 million we’d need additionally to provide everything in the plan. We based that on real data for a year, but that’s a pie in the sky figure. We know Missoula is going to grow.”

Ward 4 council member Jon Wilkins also had concerns over cost. At one point, he described the plan as flawed, though he later said he supported portions of it.

“There are some things in it I really like,” said Wilkins. “We’ve got to do something with the mental health problem. We need beds for that. The wet house thing – I’m still debating on whether that’s good or bad.”

No where in this article is any monetary figure reflecting how much money we are currently wasting. Over 6 years ago St. Pats said they write-off around 3.2 million dollars on indigent care. What’s that figure for 2015? How much is wasted by the city with first responder services, like police and fire?

It is absolutely maddening to read this shit. We spend money on studies, then the studies come out, then we talk about it, wringing our collective hands over the problem. Then the holidays come, other issues come up, and nothing happens. Nothing fucking happens.

This isn’t just a local problem (though Missoula is seen as a great place by other communities in Montana to send their chronically homeless). We desperately need better statewide coordination, whether its access to treatment for addiction, better planned discharges from Warm Springs, and better planned discharges from Deerlodge. But will we get it?

Some of the stories I have about Warm Springs and the prison dumping people on the shelter or in motel rooms with little to no support (Three Rivers is a terrible mental health organization) would astound people in this community. Just recently I heard about a level 3 sex offender sent to Missoula even though the prison was told explicitly this offender would not receive supportive services.

I hope during the next legislative session something will actually get done about these issues. I hope the rest of the state won’t let symbolic gun ordinances and refugee-saving crusades negatively impact their impression of Missoula to the detriment of issues like these that need more funding and wider political support to enact changes and close gaps in services.

Talk is cheap. We need solutions. And we need people to understand how expensive our current failures actually are. If that was better understood, I think more diverse political support would be inevitable.

by William Skink

Later today, it’s been pointed out on social media, mostly white people will attend Missoula’s Day of the Dead event. I know that triggers and micro aggressions and cultural landmines exist everywhere these days, but damn it, Missoula’s writhing, drum pounding DotD parade procession is one of the last Missoula things of beauty my cynicism hasn’t blotted out yet, so thank you Dan Brooks for writing this piece that anyone wanting to stay angry at this cultural theft probably won’t read.

I love that my kids get to experience this every year. Day of the Dead has helped my wife and I talk to our kids about death, especially after putting our dogs down a few years ago. I love that they can see all these people coming out to honor and remember people who have died.

I finished my second short documentary piece and posted it to Youtube a few days ago. It’s called Failing Salcido, and it’s about the Poverello Center’s attempt to provide a daytime space for chronically homeless people who can’t or won’t abstain from abusing drugs and/or alcohol.

The Center was named after Forrest Clay Salcido, a homeless man beaten to death by two high school kids on the California Street bridge 9 years ago. In the video I explain why I think the center failed, and I try to do so as reasonably as possible (except at the end) because this failure is important to understand for those still fighting to close the gaps in services that persist and persist.

Before getting to the video, there is a sequence with a backstory that needs to be told. At precisely 6:03 I cut to a shot of a brick-enclosed space. This is the backend of The Ox, a dive bar located at the corner of Pine and Higgins. The audio is me reading the conclusion of this UM Kaiman op-ed making the case for why we shouldn’t let people freeze to death on the streets.

At that point, the shot flips and you see a face. The man with the sad eyes, Joey, did freeze to death in Montana, but it was on the streets of Butte. Before freezing to death, Joey was involved in the beatdown death of Johnny Belmarez.

When the picture of Joey flips back to the scene of the crime, I pan left, and you can see the building where City Council meets every Monday and Wednesday. The reason this sequence is important is because the night Johnny Belmarez was killed–April 12th, 2010–on the other side of the street, Missoula was busy celebrating the passage of an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting LGBT rights.

How is that for juxtaposition?

Not everyone has someone remembering and celebrating their life once they die. Johnny was beaten to death as Missoula celebrated equality, then Joey froze to death a few years later, after being acquitted and getting his life back.

And Forrest Clay Salcido? Who remembers him? And who remembers the space opened in his name?

Hopefully, with this video, more than just those of us involved will remember what happened, what we tried, and why it failed.